1956 International 120 - The Complete restoration

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The box of any truck takes a beating - hauling loads, trying stuff down, trhowing stuff into, onto and over the sides....and this International's box was no different. It led a hard life - the rails are dented front to back and even crushed in one spot, The front end is bowed out from years of having things thrown into it. The tailgate is thin from rust, broken in spots and out of shape. So why n6t f5nd a better one and sawp it out? Believe me, I looked! Anything you can find is even worse off - and since I was changing out the floor anyways, the largest part was done.....or so I hoped...



Working the sides to be close enough only to need a skiff of filler was our goal:

A couple last rusted-though areas tended to with new metal:

Metal-finishing the sides takes a lot of work, but saves on a lot of filler....

Starting to look like a truck box again! 

Soon it'll look like a NEW truck box.

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International Harvest 120 Series Rust work - July 2016

BACK AT IT!!

After a somewhat extended absence due to a little illness (mostly lazy-itis), we're back in the E-tek Shop making sweet sweet metal-magic! Follow along while we get this beautiful 56 International truck back to its glory days:

^ With the box out of the way, the frame and cab where cleaned up again and the paint, mud and dirt stripping continued. Only a couple small patches left and the cab will be ready for filler and paint prep.

One of these final rust spots was cut out, a cardboard template made to fit:and new metal made to replace it:....

^ Cardboard template

^ Cut, cut, cut...

^ Transferred to 18G sheet steel...

^ The same was done for an inner piece, just requiring a little

 more finesse and metal shaping....

^ And with the inner piece inserted, the top piece is finalized to fit.

Back on the box, the back edges where metal-finished (no filler) 

and the underside was welded together with the sides...

^ These holes had to go

^ And so they did. Note the partially metal-finished section on the left...

 ^The new floor will MAKE the truck!

International Harvester 120 Series: Box floor

 The prep time in order to get the box floor into the shape required to be welded to the outer structure is significant - and today was devoted to the things no-one ever sees. Measure - edges trimmed, floor shaved, box sides prepped, fitment. Measure again.  Welding coming next.

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Ford Flathead side-mount engine stand

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The little Warn Winch comes in handy in so many applications:

To access the Flatty in most angles, I fabricated a side mount, bolted it to the exhausts mounting holes on on side of the flatty and then to the engine stand:

Makes for an odd orientation, but it's all very accessible:

1956 International 4x4: Metal work and box floors

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With the cab corner and door bottoms fabbed and shaped

 - and the inners prepped and solid - it was time to weld!

Once it's welded solid, the wleds are ground down...

The floor for the box was up next. The closest we could come was this full-size GM floor.

 With 8" cut off each corner, it should drop right in

Perfect cuts!

Should drop right in!

The E-rod is coming along....

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Although it looks like not much has been accomplished, this is the stage whereby all the parts and pieces are mocked up, tried and tested, fitted and re-fitted.

The front suspension  has a strong cross-member  to hold it steady 

and most of the original pieces are still here:

On the rear, I'll mock it all up then remove the original pumpkin  and switch out the rear-end for something more robust - perhaps from a mid-40's F1 truck.

1956 International 120 Series 4x4: lower door repair, box floor

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To recap, I removed the lower door skin that was rusted through by cutting across the door, then grinding off the edges to expose the seams. Once exposed, the piece is split open and removed.

As always, Rust Bullet is applied to the inners to stop the surface rust that had formed 

as well as to help preserve the metal for many years to come.

Now, a new piece is sourced and shaped to fit the door bottom. 

The piece has to match the shape and contour of the original very closely, otherwise, 

when welded, it will pull and warp the door out of shape.

Once cut to size, the contour has to be set:

The Shrinker -Stretcher is a tool that has made this process so easy it's silly.

 I used to hand-form contoured parts - with heat, pie-cuts and lots of bending...

Now it's just a matter of a few stretches in the right place and the piece starts to curve..

A perfect contour:

Eastwood's Butt-clamps work well here:

Not to forget - the little inner-piece on the cab corner,

The new GM truck floor was brought in to begin the major process of making it fit the IH box...

 Yes, it's going to look good!